


Variables

by Stratagem



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: AU, Adventure, F/M, Romance, Sass, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8505856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: Athena is a Variable, a test subject who is switched from one Maze to another. From an abandoned city of a maze called the Rust, she must learn to live in the Glade with a new group, the boys of Group A. She'll have to prove that she can hold her own. Oh and preferably not get too involved with that blond-haired second-in-command with the accent. NaNoWriMo 2016 project.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I've been playing with this idea for a few months now, and since it's now November, I've decided to go ahead and try it out. So this is an AU where a test subject from a different Maze and a different branch of WICKED is transported to the Group A's Maze. It's set one year pre-Thomas, and it'll go off the rails from the original storyline. So welcome to Variables, my NaNoWriMo 2016 project!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own The Maze Runner (it belongs to the fantastic James Dashner). I just thought it would be fun to write a bit of fanfic for NaNoWriMo.

It was cold out in the Rust. Even Athena's jacket couldn't keep out the biting chill of the early morning wind that whipped around the sharp corners of ruined buildings, tearing at her dark hair. She didn't even bother trying to pull up the hood of her hoodie. It wasn't like it would stay put with the wind blowing.

Overhead, the sun was starting to bleed pink across the pale lavender-blue sky as dawn broke over the Maze, or as the inhabitants called it, the Rust. Unfortunately, the Rust wouldn't get any warmer, even with the sun out. It was always a nippy temperature in their prison, no matter how bright and sunny the day was. Maybe that was some annoying trick their jailers had decided to pull on them. Athena wouldn't be surprised. Whoever stuck them there did seem to have a sadistic streak.

Unlike the Mappers and others who went out into the Rust, Athena didn't bother sprinting or even jogging through the maze to get to her pick-up points. Last night, she had put in a request at the Courtyard's mailbox for some new medical supplies, and the wardens or whoever they were always dropped the supplies in the same spots. They were close to the Courtyard, and she could get the meds and get back without exhausting herself.

Still, she kept a staff in hand. It was stupid to go into the Rust unarmed. It wasn't like the beasts could tell who was a medic and who wasn't.

The medicine she needed wasn't crucial, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't worried about Seph's cough. The younger girl couldn't seem to shake this cold, no matter how many cups of tea and hot soup Athena had her drink. A couple generic cold meds would hopefully get her back to full strength.

That was if the meds were approved.

Sometimes the wardens didn't give them the materials they asked for. It was sort of like making a wish to a spiteful genie. A spiteful, taciturn, flippant genie who didn't seem to have a particular code of ethics or morals that they followed.

Man, what she wouldn't give to have five minutes alone with the wardens. She would give them a piece of her mind and then some. Like a fist to the face.

Athena headed down a corridor, making her way to her first pick-up point. Her half-full medic's bag bounced against her shoulder as she walked. It was light brown, almost the same shade as her skin, and it had a big blue star stitched into the material. The star was her symbol around the Courtyard, something she put on almost everything she owned in some form or fashion. The other girls knew not to mess with her stuff without permission. Not that she would explode or anything. Nah, she'd just wait until they got hurt and then sew them up without anesthetic. That always did the trick.

She was getting close to her first pick-up, the one in the broken building with the statues in front of it. Buildings seemed to close in around her as she walked down an alley. There were shortcuts all over the Rust, but you had to be smart to remember where they were.

When she got to the part of the alley where there was a painting of a cactus on the wall, Athena smoothly ducked. Foot-long needles shot across the space where her head had once been and clattered against the needles that were already embedded in the opposite wall. Without pausing, she continued forward, keeping a steady pace.

You also had to remember what traps went with which shortcut.

The first pick-up turned out to be a bust. There wasn't anything in the box on the building's front stoop, so Athena turned around and took a left. Her sturdy boots crunched against the broken sidewalk and gravel, and again, she tried not to wonder too much about where all these buildings came from and where the people who had lived in them had gone.

Letting her mind drift off while she was in the Rust wasn't a good way to stay alive, and she had a decent survival instinct. Maybe less than some others, according to Tia, but whatever. Tia was a worrywart, and honestly it wasn't like she was a Mapper. She was just one of the few willing to go after a Mapper when they got injured in the Rust.

She was almost to her second pick-up point when one of the Mappers came across her path, nearly skidding into her. "E'yo, Thena," Rhian said, jogging in place, "How's it going? Got anything to go back?" Most of the girls were worried about Seph. She was the youngest and most innocent out of them all, and she was the newest. They tended to be pretty protective of their newbies.

"It's dandy," Athena said with a half-smile, "But I haven't got the meds yet, so keep going." She didn't want to keep the Mapper while the other girl could be making her rounds through the Rust, hopefully finding the way out.

"Gotcha," Rhian said, "Keep an eye out for the beasts."

"Always. Be careful!" Athena said, waving as the Mapper took off, dashing down the corridor. Too fast. Rhian never had been very good at pacing herself. Seriously, trying to keep all of these girls in good health was an all time job. Luckily she did have to lead them at the same time. That was Tia's job.

A couple more turns took her to the street where her second pick-up point was located. It was hidden better than the first point, beneath a storm drain on the side of the road, and it had taken her a few weeks to find it after she had first been dropped in the maze.

She was almost there when something glinted off to the side, down an alley that she knew better than to take. This one didn't lead anywhere in particular, but there was a wall that would fall on you if you walked down that way. Iris had died last year when the wall had crushed her leg, and she lost too much blood. It wasn't a sight that Athena was ever going to forget, and she didn't want to go down that way if she could help it.

However, as a member of the Courtyard, she couldn't ignore anything new that popped up in the Rust. It was part of their rules that new additions to the maze were supposed to be examined, just in case the exit to the maze only opened on certain days or at certain times.

Sighing, Athena readjusted the straps on her medic's bag and trotted over to the mouth of the alleyway, ignoring the shiver of apprehension that traveled down her spine. She paused, one hand on the cracked wall by the alleyway. Down at the dead end, something was glimmering behind a half-ripped tarp. For a moment, Athena considered calling out for Rhian to come back, but the other girl was probably too far away to hear her clearly. If she didn't take this chance, she might miss a potential exit and let the rest of her group down.

Steeling herself, Athena pushed away her anxiousness and bad memories and walked down the alley. Picking up a brick, she hurled it from her, causing the motion sensor for the wall to trick. Cursing it, she walked over it, stepping off the end just as it started hauling itself into position. Even if they could have broken it, the wall would have fixed itself in the morning. Every trap in the Rust fixed itself if it was sprung or broken, no matter what the girls did.

She walked to the end of the alley, her staff held out in front of her just in case this was another death trap. Behind the tarp, the wall glistened and gleaned, like it was made out of quicksilver instead of the usual metal of the Rust. Huh. Weirdness. Weirdness was good, it was different, and different meant a possible escape from the Rust.

Athena's heart pounded in her chest, rattling her rib cage as she shifted from foot to foot in front of the wall. Maybe she was about to have a heart attack. That'd be poetic, the medic dying of a heart attack. She needed to get her bravery up and just go for it.

Gingerly, she pressed her staff into the wall, and it passed through. Like, it literally went right through the shiny grey stuff as if it wasn't even there.

"Holy..." Athena pulled her staff back and looked at it, inspecting it for scorch marks or acid or, you know, anything that would indicate that it had gone somewhere dangerous. The wall must have been a hologram. She needed to find someone, she needed to see if this was the way out. What if it disappeared? What if it went away the moment she moved from in front of it from it? She also needed to check and see what was on the other side, so the Mappers and whoever she brought back would be prepared.

Ugh, choices. She needed to think, but what if this opportunity closed while she rolled over the options in her mind?

"Just do it," she encouraged herself, her hands balling up into fists.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and walked through the wall, stepping into possible freedom.

Where she was promptly knocked to the ground by a jumble of arms and legs and fluffy blond hair. She gave an uncharacteristic scream and whacked her attacker with her staff, thrashing the threat around the neck and shoulders.

"Bloody hell, stop that!" the attacker shouted. The distinctly male voice made her freeze, and he took that chance to grab her staff and pull it out of her hands. He looked just as shocked as she felt as he stared at her, his mouth open. "You're a...where'd you come from?"

A boy. A boy. She hadn't seen a boy in...well, she couldn't remember. Her heart was slamming against her ribs, pounding as if it was about to explode. Blame the amnesia everyone in the Courtyard suffered from, but she couldn't remember the last time she had been this close to someone not from her Maze. She almost reached out to touch him, as if to make sure he was real, but instead, she jumped up and hurled herself back through the illusion, fear driving her actions.

Or tried to.

"Damn it!" she shouted as she stumbled back from the solid wall, pain bursting across her forehead. The grey glimmer was gone, replaced by a stone wall that she had never seen before. Athena put her hands against the wall. "Where'd it go, where is it—" She had never been the type to panic, but she could feel the frantic worry welling up in her chest.

"Where'd what go?" the boy asked, hands up, his voice calm and wary, like he was talking to an injured animal. Probably safer for him that way.

"Where's the maze?" she demanded, fingernails scrambling against the stone wall, as if she could drag the grey out of it and get back through.

That's when the boy said something that made her stop, fingers pressed into the cracks of the wall.

"You're in it."


	2. Chapter 2

No, no, no. Athena wanted to get out of the maze, that had been a dream of hers for literally as long as she could remember, but she had always imagined getting out with the rest of the girls. Plus, the guy she had run into seemed to think that this was the maze. Which was impossible.

"What're you talking about?" she demanded, pressing her back against the ivy-covered wall. "This isn't the maze. What's going on?"

"Just calm down," he said, hands up as if ready to stop her if she decided to hit him again, "Take a breather."

"I _am_ calm!" she shrieked, even though she was anything but. Normally, she was the one who kept her head in nerve-wracking situations. She was used to seeing kids being brought to her bleeding and dying. She was used to death and injury and shock and fear, but this was out of her realm. This was different.

"Okay, okay," the boy said, stepping back, giving her room, "Sure. But we need to start walking, all right?"

"Why?" she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest, "I have to get back, I can't leave here." How strange that she wanted to go back to her maze, but right now, she could only think about how she had left the others behind. And how the boy insisted that wherever they were now was actually the maze.

"We can't stay here," he said, "We can't be out in the maze after the sun goes down or we'll be stuck here."

"It's early morning, it's nowhere near sunset," Athena protested. She turned back to the wall, her hands searching for the way she had come through. There had to be a door or something.

"That might be true wherever you're from, but here it's going on sunset."

Turning around, Athena looked up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was heading down toward a far wall. Hours had passed since she had left her maze, or at least it seemed that way. Had she been transported here during the lost time? But no, she had come through the wall, there had been no break.

"Look, I'm just as confused as you are," the boy said, "But one thing I'm certain of is that we're not staying here. You _have_ to come with me."

"But…" She ran her hand over the wall one last time. Her friends. The rest of the Rust dwellers. She needed to get them out, too.

"Please?" the boy said. She looked up to see him holding her staff out to her. "I'm not going to hurt you, got it? We just gotta get out of here."

Athena hesitated and then took the staff. There didn't really seem to be any other option besides going with the boy, not when the entrance to her own maze wasn't open. Maybe it only opened at certain times? She would come back tomorrow and see if she could get through.

"Let's go, then," he said and gestured for her to follow him. He glanced over at her, and she noticed he had dark, warm brown eyes. "I'm Newt, by the way."

"Athena," she replied shortly. She knew she should've been nicer, but right now she was on edge.

"All right, Athena. Can you run? Just for a while, we're not far from the Glade," Newt said.

"I can run," she said quietly.

They picked up their pace, starting to jog along beside each other. Her boots pounded the ground next to his more useful sneakers. While she was dressed for the cold of the Rust, he was dressed in looser, lighter clothes. It did seem a lot warmer here.

"What's the Glade?"

"It's where we all live."

She was accumulating questions by the second, and she had a feeling she wouldn't be getting all of the answers right away, not if this was really a maze and if it was anything like her own. The Rust and the Courtyard had been extremely confusing when she had first entered the maze, and it had taken weeks for her and some of the others to sort things out.

"This might sound like a stupid question, but you're sure this is a maze?"

"That is a mite stupid," Newt said, but his tone wasn't harsh. "Been here going on two years myself, and I can say with all certainty that it's a maze."

"But it's so green," she said, "Ours isn't green like this. And we have a lot of buildings."

"So you really do come from a different maze," he said, "Or at least you think you do."

"I know I do. I come from the Rust," she said, "It's a maze in a city, and it doesn't look anything like this."

"Huh." And that was all he said, but she could see him thinking on it as they ran, his dark eyes narrowed. "Come on, we can talk about it when we get back. Let's speed up." Without waiting for her reply, he started running faster, forcing her to almost sprint to keep up. She wasn't a Mapper, so running wasn't her thing, but she had spent enough time collecting supplies out in the Rust that she was in good shape. At least she was able to stay close behind him, only a few paces away.

Questions rolled around in her mind, pushing back the fear and the edge of despair and anger. She had left the others behind, but it had been an accident. Right? It's not like she meant to come here without them, it had just happened. She had completely intended on going back for them if she really had found the way out. She certainly hadn't expected the way out to be closed when she tried to go back through. Truthfully, if this Newt fellow wasn't lying, she hadn't even found a way out of the Rust. She had only found a way into another Maze, one that might be even more deadly than the Rust. Perhaps the others were better off where they were.

They ran for about thirty minutes, to the point where Athena had a stitch in her side. Newt, however, didn't even seem winded. Maybe he was a Mapper for this maze. Eventually they started down a corridor that opened up into a large green place. She slowed down the minute they crossed over into the grassy area, taking it all in. The Courtyard had a couple flower patches, but she didn't have any memories of a place like this. There were stands of trees and fields and it smelled like rich earth.

"This is the Glade," Newt said. He stopped beside her and glanced her way. "Your maze didn't have one?"

"I wish we did," she said. It looked positively pastoral. But then she started noticing the people in the Glade, and something definitely was off. She didn't see a single girl around the place. Were they hiding somewhere? "Wait, is everyone here a guy?"

"Yeah," Newt said. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I should've mentioned that."

Oh. Well. That was a surprise…


	3. Chapter 3

For some reason, Athena had just assumed there would be other girls. After coming from the Rust, where there weren't any boys at all, she hadn't even considered the idea that maybe this maze would be a completely male maze.

No wonder Newt had been surprised to see her.

"That…" she trailed off, not knowing what to say. Okay, so it would've been nice to know that fact, so she could prepare herself, but it didn't change anything. This maze was basically a complete opposite of her own. The Rust was all metal and steel and broken alleyways and destroyed civilization while this place seemed to be made of grass and stone and ivy vines and farm lands and trees. And boys.

Yeah, that was a big opposite right there.

"I should've told you earlier," he said. He watched her closely as she took a couple steps away from him, toward the wall. "Are you all right?"

"My maze was all girls," she said weakly. "I think…you know, I'm just going to sit down for a minute." Her back hit the wall, and she slid down until she was folded up at the base of the stones, her staff resting across her knees. Athena closed her eyes and summoned all of her rationality, practicality, and levelheadedness.

She wasn't the type to panic. Well, she had panicked earlier, but that was a momentary flash of fear and anxiety. She couldn't break down again, certainly not where all these people could see her and automatically label her as weak. She was the medic for her group, and she was certainly not weak. In a moment, she would get up and face this new reality with composure. She just needed to catch her breath.

When she opened her eyes, Newt was kneeling a few feet in front of her. He seemed to be tying the laces on his shoe, but he was also blocking her from anyone else seeing her. Was he doing that on purpose and giving her a moment to herself?

He glanced over at her and gave her encouraging smile. "Better now?"

"Yeah. Thanks." She stood up and brushed herself off as he got to his feet as well. "So. All boys."

"Mhmm. You're the first girl, and you arrived a weird way." He pointed over toward a metal contraption in the distance. "We usually get one guy with the supplies that come up on the lift once a month, and it's just been a couple weeks since we got our last greenie."

"Greenie?"

"New guy."

Ah, green because he was fresh and new. Got it. The Courtyard members didn't have a term for new girls besides 'newbies'. Apparently they weren't as creative with slang terms as these boys.

There was the sound of shoes slapping the ground, and Athena turned to see a couple more boys come jogging into the green place. Glade. Yeah, that. One of them was muscular with olive skin, dark hair, and dark eyes while the other was tall with shaggy blond hair. Both of them slowed down, breathing deeply as they stopped at the mouth of the maze to catch their breath. The dark-haired one glanced over and nodded at Newt.

"Back already? Thought you'd get back after us today."

"Yeah, well, something came up," Newt replied and gestured toward Athena. "Something really quite unexpected."

The other boy's eyes widened, and the tall guy stumbled back, completely caught off guard. Athena stared back at them evenly, unwilling to show how unsettled she herself was. The last thing she wanted was for them to think she was some kind of frail creature.

"Shuck it, is that a girl?" the dark-haired boy asked, "Where'd you get her from, Newt?"

"Yes, and I can speak for myself," Athena said. She made a mental note to add 'shuck' to the list of weird boy vocabulary.

"Where'd she come from?" the taller guy demanded.

Newt looked to Athena, making her glad that at least someone realized that she was capable of talking. "Newt found me in your maze."

"She says she's from a different maze," Newt offered, "One that's all girls."

"Ain't that nice." The dark-haired boy whistled and ran his hands back over his spiky hair. "This is going to go over sooo well." Sarcasm dripped off his words, and Athena smiled a tiny bit. She could imagine the same situation in her own maze and the chaos it would cause. He stretched out a hand to her and gave a grin. "The shank right there is Ben, and I'm Minho."

"Athena," she said, shaking the offered hand. Shank?

"Have you taken her to see Alby yet?" Minho asked Newt, who shook his head.

"We just got here," he said, "Can you do me a favor? Can you go get him and bring him here?"

"What, don't want to cause a scene?" Minho said, "Y'know they're all going to gawk at her eventually. First girl in ever."

Ben was already gawking at her, staring at her as if she was an exotic creature. Athena shifted her weight from foot to foot and crossed her arms over her chest even though it was already hot here in her coat and thick clothes. She didn't want to think about an entire group of boys staring at her like that, even if they didn't mean anything by it.

"Just do it, would you?" Newt said.

Minho smirked. "Sure, sure. Be back in a bit." He smiled at Athena again and tugged on Ben's arm, startling from his staring episode.

"They're all going to be like that," Newt said after they were gone. He turned to Athena, his back toward the rest of the Glade. His dark brown eyes were concerned and serious as he looked down at her.

"Do you mean the staring or Minho's sense of humor?" Athena asked.

"The staring," Newt said, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Minho's the only one with that particularly dull sense of humor." Athena got the feeling that he was actually good friends with Minho.

"So I guess I'm going to cause some problems," she said with a sigh.

"We'll get it sorted," Newt said, "It might take everyone a while to adjust, but it'll be all right."

"I might not be here long," she said, lifting her chin. "I'm going to try to get back to my maze tomorrow."

Newt lifted an eyebrow. "You think that's going to work?"

"Maybe." She couldn't help by try. It wasn't that she wanted to be stuck in a maze, but if she had to be in a maze, she preferred one where she already understood the rules. And where she wasn't the only girl out of twenty or so teenage boys.

Newt looked at her for a long time. "You're sure you're from another maze?"

"Yes," she said, bristling a little at being asked about it yet again, "Where else would I be from?"

"I don't know," Newt said with a shrug, "I just know some people are going to think about the people who put us here when they find out how you got here."

Athena scowled. "Wait, hold on, you think I'm one of them?"

"I didn't say that. I don't know who you are yet," he said, "Though I'd rather you were just from another maze. I'm pretty sure I believe you, just based on how you acted earlier, but I can't speak for the others."

"So what do you think they'll do with me?" Athena asked. Today just got better and better, didn't it?

"Alby'll be fair," Newt said with certainty. "We'll talk to him and try to figure things out. Just answer all of his questions, okay?"

"As long as he answers all of mine."

Newt sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. "Great…"


	4. Chapter 4

"You're from where?"

Athena looked up at the stocky, muscular boy who was frowning down at her like she was the biggest headache ever. Which, you know, she guessed she was at this point. Alby was in charge around here, and she was going to create more than a few waves by showing up. Judging by the attention they were already attracting, the news that a girl had shown up was started to spread around the clearing. The Glade. Geez, these boys and their weird vocabulary.

Minho and a couple other guys were keeping the small crowd from coming too close, probably so Alby could grill her without interference. She was just glad that Newt was there, and that he seemed to believe her. Mostly.

"The Courtyard and the Rust," she said, "I already told you, it's another maze, but I don't know where it is or exactly how I got here."

"She just appeared out of a wall," Newt said again, for the third or fourth time. Alby seemed to find that to be the hardest part to believe.

Newt and Athena had been talking to Alby for probably close to an hour now, going over and over Athena's story. She had told him about how she had been put into her maze about two years ago, and about her role as a medic there. She had told him about the Rust and the monsters and the other girls who lived in the Courtyard, about the traps and the Mappers, at least as much as she was willing to at the moment.

Being questioned by a stranger didn't particularly sit well with her. In return, she had started asking questions of her own, but he had dodged a bunch of these, saying that wasn't 'how things worked around here.' Apparently they kept their newbies in the dark about a lot of things. Or maybe it was just her?

"This doesn't make sense," Alby said. He crossed his arms over his wide chest. "How are we supposed to believe you about being from another maze?"

"I don't know," Athena said, annoyed, "I can't force you to believe me. I don't have any proof."

"You have your bag," Newt said, gesturing toward her medic's pouch, "And your staff."

"Yeah, but if we're being very paranoid, you could assume that the makers gave these to me to make it look like I came from a maze," she said. She looked back at Alby, her hands tightening around her staff. "I can't prove where I'm from, but I hope you'll believe me." She needed him to believe her.

Alby glanced from her to Newt and gestured for him to follow. Newt walked past her, and he and Alby moved a few yards away, talking in voices that were too quiet for her to overhear. Anxiety buzzed through Athena's skin and tightened up her shoulders. If they didn't trust her, what would they do to her? Put her out in the maze? That would be one sure way to kill her, if their mazes were anything alike.

She shouldn't have gone through that gate, or whatever it was, that had led her to this maze. Her potential escape hadn't exactly gotten her out of trouble, but instead landed her in an entirely new maze where she didn't know the rules and had no friends. Even though she was resolved to go back into the maze tomorrow, she doubted that the gate would let her through. She had a terrible feeling that she was stuck here.

No matter what, she couldn't just stand around and let them decide her fate for her.

"Hey." She marched up to Alby and Newt and put her hands on her hips. "I don't want any trouble, okay, so I'm not going to make problems for you."

"You being here is a problem," Alby said. He rubbed a hand over his face, as if to silently say that he did not need the stress that she brought with her.

"I know, but I can't help that," she argued, "I'm going to try to fix it tomorrow, but I doubt it's going to work."

"She's probably some kind of test," Newt said. He looked down at her, his head tilted slightly to the side. "But the makers aren't exactly going to tell us what the test is." He turned his attention back to Alby. "Let's just treat her like any other greenie, okay?"

"But she's not." Alby waved a hand at her. "She's a girl. And she didn't come up the regular way. And she says she came from some other maze, so she's nothing like a greenie."

"Plus I'm not new to a maze." Athena had been in her maze for almost two years. There was no way she was going to let them think she was going to regress into a newbie just because of a change of scenery and company.

"Fine, then we just act like you're a normal Glader," Newt said with a shrug. "Get her a job, somewhere to sleep. We'll do things a little different for, well, reasons, but she follows the same rules as everyone else."

"I'd be fine with that," Athena said, "I can pull my own weight, and like I said, I'm not here to cause issues."

Alby looked up at the darkening sky. The gates to the maze had closed a while ago, and she guessed it was close to dinner time around here. "I don't like this." He pointed a finger in Athena's face, and she had to stop herself from batting it away. "You do something untrustworthy, and you go straight to the Slammer."

"And that would be?"

"Jail," Newt put in, "Glader jail."

"Wonderful." Apparently the boys had thought of everything. "I'll stick to your rules, as long as you don't try to stop me from going—" She almost said 'home,' but the Courtyard and the Rust were anything but home-y. Her maze was just more familiar… "Getting back to where I came from."

"We can talk about that later," Newt said, sliding away from the issue like it was oil and he was water, "Come on, I'm starving. And we need to get you somewhere to stay."

"That's another thing, she can't stay with the rest of us," Alby said.

"I can stay wherever you need me to," Athena said, not letting them talk about her as if she wasn't there.

"She can stay in the upstairs of the Homestead!" Newt said, beginning to sound exasperated, "Look, you're both making this more difficult than it should be." He shot a glare at Athena. "You're currently a Glader." He turned the same glare on Alby. "She's a Glader. We have an extra Glader. That's it, that's all for right now."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Good."

Athena knew that wasn't going to be the end of the discussion, but she was glad that the argument was over for the moment. It didn't seem like they were going to try to toss her out into the maze or automatically shove her into their makeshift jail, so she guessed that she was momentarily accepted. Or on probation.

Alby glanced over at the crowd of boys that were pestering Minho. "Hope you're ready to meet everyone at once, greenie."

"It's Athena," she said. She was anything but a greenie.

"Well, Thena, off you go. Food's served in the mess hall." Alby headed off, moving toward the ramshackle building that stood out as the Glade's main structure. "Newt. Meeting, now."

"Think you'll be okay?" Newt asked.

"Let him know that it's Ah-thena, not Thena..." she said and then nodded. "Yeah. They're just a bunch of boys, I can handle it." She just wouldn't bring up the fact that her maze was all girls and she couldn't remember ever interacting with a specific boy before today. "Go on, before he chews your head off."

"Eh, it's a hard head, he'd have a difficult time of it." He grinned and followed after Alby, catching up and nudging the other boy in the side.

All right. She could do this. Just face down about twenty boys without flinching. Hell yeah, she could do that.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually like Gally, so he'll eventually mellow out...he's just suspicious right now, lol.

These guys weren't very good at whispering. Declarations of disbelief, cursing, and questions crashed down on her at full volume. They were, however, excellent at staring.

Athena kept her chin up high and didn't make eye contact with anyone in particular as she walked into what had been referred to as the "mess hall" alone. She even left her staff outside so she wouldn't seem like a threat. Part of her wished that Newt or even that Minho kid was here with her, but maybe it was better to face the mob by herself. It wasn't like she could constantly have an escort or as if she even wanted one. Being constantly followed would've been horrible.

She glanced around, trying to figure out how the mess hall worked. Back in the Courtyard, they all ate around the same table and shared the food family-style. Here it seemed that they were through a line and then headed back to a few scatted tables, all of which looked handmade.

Eyes followed her as she made her way to the line; she could feel the weight of their collective gaze on her skin. Or maybe that was just her heavy winter clothes. It was so much warmer in this maze, it almost didn't seem fair. Hah. Fair. That world never applied to a maze. She knew better.

Shedding her jacket, she stepped up to one of the tables and glanced around at the unfamiliar faces that were ogling back at her. She pointed to a spot on the bench. "Mind if I put my jacket down and save a seat?"

"Uh, well, who…who are you?" one of the boys stammered.

"I'm Athena," she said, and then shrugged. "I'm new." As if that wasn't obvious.

"You can put your jacket there if you tell us why you're here and why you're a girl," said another boy. He was tall, with squinty brown eyes, short brown hair, and a scar on his neck. "We don't have girls here."

Athena raised her eyebrows. Oh hell no, she wasn't going to put up with that kind of attitude. She understood they were going to be curious and suspicious, but that didn't mean they had to be rude. She picked up her jacket, and walked over to the next table.

"Are you more polite?" she asked the three boys sitting there.

One of them scooted over and gestured for her to take the empty spot. "I'm Lincoln, and over there's Clint and Oppie. You can sit here."

"You can sit anywhere," said Oppie. He was a tall, lanky boy with red hair, freckles, and glasses, plus a lopsided and welcoming grin. "Did you come up on the lift? It's not the right day, though. So you're from somewhere else? How'd you get here?"

"Dude, chill out," Clint said, shaking his head, "Give her a chance to get food first."

"Thank you," Athena said, giving Clint a tense half-smile. Honestly, she didn't want to answer any of their questions, not after having been interrogated by Alby for the past half hour. Actually, slinking off into a corner and hiding until morning sounded like a decent plan, but she wasn't the type to run from her problems. Or hide from them.

She was more of a fixer, which was why she had been a medic back in the Courtyard. Meeting problems head-on was really the only way to deal with them.

She turned to go get her meal and found a tall, dark-skinned boy standing there, holding out a pre-made plate.

"Sit, sit," he said, "You're Athena, right?"

"Yes…" she said cautiously, wondering how he already knew her name.

"Newt sent Leo to tell me about you," the boy said. He leaned past her and set the plate down on the table. "He said you might not be that hungry but to feed you anyways. I'm Frypan." He stuck out his hand.

A nervous laugh escaped from her. "Seriously?" She took his hand and gave it a firm shake, still smiling a little. "Your name is really Frypan?"

"Yeah," he said, smiling back at her, seemingly not insulted by her sudden laugh. "Fits, seeing how I cook all the food for these klunkheads."

Oh great, more slang. She was going to have to use her notebook to keep track of all this. Or she would if she was staying, which she definitely wasn't. "Thanks for the food. It looks good."

"I need to ask for more spices," he said, shaking his head, "It could use more flavor."

"Yeah, 'cause dog vomit isn't a good taste," teased Lincoln, earning him an eye roll from the maze's cook.

"Stuff it, shank," Frypan said with a good-natured grin before heading back off to the serving line.

Athena sat down at the table, avoiding the stares of the boys around her, and began eating. She was actually a little hungry now, seeing how breakfast had been a while ago. Would sleeping be difficult tonight? She was on a different time schedule, after all. She just needed to make sure she got up early enough to go and try the wall that would lead her back to the Rust.

"Now that you're fed," Oppie said, leaning forward, "How exactly did you get here?"

Between bites of food and sips of water, she explained her story to the boys sitting at her table, knowing that others were listening in. It was the exact same story she had told Newt and Alby, and hopefully this would be the last time she would have to tell it. The boys could tell each other after this.

"That's crazy," Lincoln said, shaking his head, "A whole other maze. I thought we were the only one."

"We thought we were alone, too," Athena said with a shrug. Maybe there were hundreds of other mazes out there, all filled with teenagers trying to survive.

"Hey, you said you were a medic, right?" Clint said, pointing a fork at her, "That's what I do."

"Really?" Athena said. She perked up a little. "Maybe we can share some tips."

"Yeah," Clint said with a nod, "I don't know a lot, but I'm picking it up as I go."

"I've got a first aid book, and that's where I learned everything," Athena said, patting her bag, "Maybe you could ask for one, too." If it was anything like the request system back at the Courtyard, they should be able to get small stuff like that.

"I'll try this week," Clint replied.

"Hey."

Athena glanced up as a new boy stepped up to their table. He had fierce razor eyebrows, a bulbous nose, and clear blue eyes that were currently regarding her like she was a snake he had been told to deal with

"Can I help you?" she asked, one hand wrapping around her bag. While she didn't have her staff, there was enough stuff in her bag to make it dangerous. Plus, she had a fork. She could turn a fork into a weapon if she had to.

"Yeah, you can," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, "You need to answer some questions, greenie."

Ugh, hadn't she dealt with enough questions? And who was this guy, anyways? He wasn't the leader, that was Alby, so she didn't owe him any answers. Athena went back to eating the skin of her baked potato. "I'm not a greenie."

"You're new to the maze, so that makes you a greenie."

"I'm Athena," she said, her tone flat and emotionless, "I won't answer to anything else."

The boy leaned down, one of hand on the table, getting in her face. All of her senses went on alert at his close proximity, and she had to clench her bag to keep from lashing out and pounding the heel of her palm into his face. "You're going to start answering to something worse if you don't answer to greenie."

"Back. Off," Athena said quietly, not looking at him.

"Gally, I'd do like the lady says," said Alby's voice a moment before he appeared. Athena spotted Newt and Minho near the serving line, both of them discreetly watching the scene yet not getting involved. Alby turned to address the gathered group. "Look, you've all noticed we've got a new face here. Athena's new, and she's a girl, as you might've figured out." That got a few chuckles and a couple mutters, and Athena met Newt's eyes across the room. He gave her an encouraging half-smile, and she smiled a little back at him. "We're going to treat her like any other Glader, got it?"

"But she's a girl," someone said.

"Yeah, so a couple things will be different, but she's going to pull her weight and everything," Alby said, shooting a frown in the direction the voice had come from. "It's going to take some getting used to, but I expect all of you shanks to treat her with respect. Or else."

She doubted that Alby really trusted her yet, but at least he was asking the others to accept her. But if Athena had her way, she wouldn't be here after the morning. This was just going to be a random, failed attempt to get out of the maze, not a permanent switch.

She didn't want to think about being stuck here without her friends in a whole new maze with new rules.


	6. Chapter 6

After she'd finished eating, Athena excused herself from the table, which seemed to shock the guys. Apparently most of them just came and went whenever they wanted without ever explaining themselves. Which wasn't exactly terrible, just different.

Everyone was pretty polite in the Courtyard, mainly because there were rules about behavior and disobeying them could mean you spent a night in the Pantry, which was an empty room off the side of the Courtyard's kitchen. Maybe it was harsh, but it had stopped Athena a few times from giving in to the desire to curse some of the other girls out.

She left the dining area and wandered into the Glade. People were watching her closely, she could feel eyes on her, but she ignored the staring. Whatever, she was currently an enigma, and if she had her way, they wouldn't have time to get used to her.

So let them stare if they wanted to.

Athena passed by the paddocks of cows and goats and wandered over to a field where some vegetables were growing. The garden was set on a very slight hill, so she could see out over the glade. Sitting down, she looped her arms around her knees and drew them up to her chest.

It was pretty here. Nicer than the Courtyard. Yes, the Courtyard certainly had a better building, and at least they had their own rooms, but… She took in a deep breath, smelling the growing vegetables and rich earth, and the faint odor of the farm animals. Most of their food in the Courtyard came through the delivery system, except for some potatoes they grew in makeshift garden buckets. There weren't any animals in the Courtyard or the Rust besides the beasts that hunted them at night. She wanted to go over and watch the goats, but she also didn't want to get attached. It wasn't like she was going to be here long.

Speaking of not getting attached…

"What're you doing out here?" Newt sat down beside her.

"You ate fast," she said, not looking over at him but instead keeping her gaze on the Glade and maze walls beyond it.

"It's either that or have Minho try to steal my meal, the shank," Newt said with a good-natured smile. He spread his legs out in front of him and leaned back on his hands, his eyes following hers. "Thinking about your maze?"

"Sort of." Now she looked at him. "I'm going to try to go back in the morning."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know." His fingertips scratched at the earth. "Is it that much better there than here?"

No, definitely not. It was warmer here and the Glade was visually amazing. They had to slaughter and cook their own animals, but they had fresh food all the time instead of the ready-made meals the girls lived with. But… "It sucks, but my friends are there. And I'm the only medic."

"They're probably worried about you," Newt said.

Now that he had brought it up, yeah, they probably would be in a few hours. When night fell and she wasn't there, they were all going to assume she had died somewhere in the Rust. Tightness clenched her chest, and her mouth fell open. She remembered other times when girls hadn't come back and the crushing sorrow at losing another friend has engulfed them all. And now the others would feel that way about her, and she wasn't even dead, she was alive.

"Athena?" Newt stared at her. "You okay?"

"I have to get back," she said, taking in a rushed breath, "I have to let them know."

"I'll try and help you in the morning," Newt said, "If that part of the maze is open, I'll get you there."

Athena took another, deeper breath, trying to calm down. "Your maze changes at night, too?"

"Yeah, it switches around every night. We're trying to figure out the pattern." He stretched his arms. "Me and the other runners. I'm their Keeper, and Minho's my second."

"We have people like that back in my maze," she said, "They go out every day and run the maze while most of the rest of us stay back and try to figure out the info they found or do chores around the Courtyard."

For a while, they sat in silence as the sky darkened, sending streaks of color overhead. Beyond the walls, the maze started to groan and screech as it turned and morphed into a new pattern.

"The people who put us in our mazes must be really messed up," Athena said, "It's cruel."

"I'd like to meet them," Newt said, his expression going dark for a moment, "I want to ask them why they did this. And maybe punch them in the throat, if I don't like their answers." He grinned. "Though I'll probably do that anyways."

"There has to be a good reason," Athena said, voicing an opinion she had given multiple times back in the Courtyard, "We can't just _be_ here. There has to be a purpose."

"Like watching a bunch of kids run around and chased and stung by Grievers?"

"You guys have the weirdest words," Athena said, wanting to change the subject, "Grievers, shank, greenie, shuck, klunk." She numbered them off on her fingers. "I mean, we have a couple different words too, but—"

"Like what?" Newt asked, raising an eyebrow at her, "I haven't heard you use much slang."

"Mmm," Athena said. She tilted her head. "That's because I'm dandy person, but if I wasn't worried about fuzzling your poor little knobs, I'd use a spatch of words you couldn't keep up with, spazz." She smirked at the look on his face and loosened her hold around her legs. "I've never been much into our slang anyways, but yeah, we have it too."

"What all did that mean?" Newt said, "I know dandy means neat or nice-looking."

"We use it more like 'good,'" she said, "And fuzzling means confusing, knobs are heads, spatch is a few or a little, and spazz, well, that's sort of like your greenie word, I guess."

"I think I like ours better," Newt said, "Except spatch. That one's okay. The rest of them are trash."

"Hey, who said you could judge our slang?" Athena teased.

"You've been judging ours, right?" Newt said, smirking back at her, "So just let me have a moment here."

She shook her head and looked back out at the glade. Both of them were quiet for a long time, until Newt broke the silence.

"What if you can't go back?"

The tight feeling rushed back and grabbed her. What would she do? Could she live here with all these boys? How would that even look, being the only girl? But she was a survivor, above everything else. "I'll make it work."

Because that's how you survived. You took what was given to you and made it work.

She was an expert at that.


End file.
